Wiscasset Feed Our Scholars moves

SUSAN JOHNS
Sat, 11/07/2020 - 8:45am
Beth Maxwell helps remove FOS items from St. Philip’s. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
First Congregational Church of Wiscasset Pastor Josh Fitterling helps load items at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Nov. 6. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset’s Chuck Billings, who served in Vietnam with the U.S. Guard, helps pack Feed Our Scholars supplies at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church Nov. 6 for the trip to First Congregational Church. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
First Congregational member Susan Kubler helps move FOS supplies into an upstairs room of the church. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
St. Philip’s member Gretchen Burleigh-Johnson brings FOS supplies into First Congregational. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper

    Two trucks, a trailer and many hands made quick work in Wiscasset Friday, as St. Philip’s Episcopal and First Congregational churches moved Feed Our Scholars’ supplies from St. Philip’s on Hodge Street to the church at the top of the common.

    The churches have partnered on the program since its start. For years, inmates at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset filled the backpacks with weekend food for subscribing local students. But with the pandemic, the operation moved from TBRJ to St. Philip’s, organizers said. Friday’s move to First Congregational frees space at St. Philip’s for its Help Yourself Shelf food pantry; and will help First Congregational members take part in FOS, St. Philip’s member Gretchen Burleigh-Johnson said.

    “It will definitely enhance it and gather more volunteers,” she said.

    “And awareness,” added First Congregational’s pastor Josh Fitterling after he helped load long grain rice and canned chicken.

    First Congregational member Beth Maxwell has just started volunteering for FOS. As president of Garden Club of Wiscasset and chair of this year’s Summerfest that raised thousands of dollars for charities after Summerfest was canceled, why would she put time into yet another effort? “Because it’s important for our kids in the town, and it’s something that I could do,” she said as she wheeled a dolly-load of boxes of mandarin oranges out the St. Philip’s door and to fellow volunteer Chuck Billings.

    The Lincoln Lodge mason and Vietnam veteran, who served in the Coast Guard, loaded those boxes and, before them, boxes of elbow macaroni, onto a trailer for the trip to First Congregational. “The truck bed’s wide open” to load supplies into, he told the group.

    Gabrielle DiPerri belongs to neither church. Her volunteer work for FOS is “just something nice to be able to do for the community,” she said. “And they can always use volunteers of a younger age, so it’s important that people who are younger who can, and who have the time, help out,” she added.

    In about an hour, the group had everything loaded, driven across Route 1, and put on a First Congregational elevator, or carried, to an upstairs room. Fitterling said in an email, “We are very excited about this continued partnership as we share space and share the mission of caring for and feeding the kids in our community!”

    He said FOS currently serves 43 students.

     

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